She held a number of major government ministerial positions, as well as opposition appointments, during this period. Her most senior position in Government was as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, a post she held from 2001 to 2007. A member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she was also Minister for the Olympics (2005–10) and Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London until September 2012, resigning after the London Olympic Games.

In July 2003, she launched an overhaul of the National Lottery.[22] She dealt with complaints that the lottery had been directed to fund programmes that should have been covered by mainstream taxation. In 2001 Arts Council England announced changes to how funding would be distributed and she supported this.[23] She oversaw the restructuring of the Arts funding system but lost out in the 2004/5 spending round, when there was a cut in her departmental budget.[24] In 2004 a tax loophole was closed around film production in Britain.[25]

In 2004, Jowell faced resistance to proposals for a series of so-called "super casinos", to be sanctioned as part of the Gambling Act 2005 which liberalised Britain's gaming laws. Although problem gambling has ruined the lives of many ordinary people,[26] in the run up to the Bill, Jowell dismissed much of the criticism as being elitist, commenting that "opponents of the Government's gambling reforms are snobs who want to deny ordinary people the right to bet". Former Labour Welfare Minister Frank Field said her comments were crass, declaring, "I think this whole New Labour line that you insult people rather than engage in argument is deeply disturbing".[27]

In March 2005, Jowell announced a new governance system for the BBC: the BBC Trust, to replace the long-established Board of Governors.[28] The trust was introduced in 2007 but in 2012 was shown to be 'not fit for purpose', leading to the resignation of the Director General.[29][30]

Jowell was a zealous supporter of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, reportedly saying on one occasion that she would "jump under a bus" for him.[36][37] She was very supportive of New Labour and was fully loyal to its agenda, earning herself a strong reputation as a Blairite. In 2007, she supported Hazel Blears for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party.[38] In 2009, she was mentioned as a possible Cabinet minister who might resign over the leadership of Gordon Brown in order to trigger a leadership contest – a suggestion which proved unfounded. In opposition, Jowell supported David Miliband's campaign to become Leader of the Labour Party,[39] but served in Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet when he became Leader of HM Opposition.[40] In 2010 she briefly appeared as a landmark on Google Maps, as a result of a prank.[41]

She was involved in the Blue Labour movement in the Labour Party, and was a contributor to The Purple Book, drawing on her background on the Right of the Labour Party.[42] Jowell set up the Sure Start programme, Jowell said, "I am very proud of setting up Sure Start [the national nurture and childcare programme], because the first three years of a child’s life are absolutely critical in determining the chances they have subsequently."[43]

Jowell was in charge of London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics. She came up with the idea in 2002, during her time as Culture Secretary, when she said there was very little support from within the Cabinet, with many colleagues thinking that Paris' bid would win. Jowell convinced the Government to support the bid, however, and went ahead with it.[44][45] In 2004, she launched the bid and, when the Games were awarded to London, she was appointed Olympics Minister (in addition to her responsibilities as Culture Secretary), and held full ministerial responsibility for the bid from 2006. Despite being moved from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2007, she retained her position as Olympics Minister throughout Labour's time in office.[31][46]

Following the general election of May 2010, at which Labour lost power, she became Shadow Olympics Minister. She remained on the 2012 Olympics Organising Committee, with Lord Coe and Jeremy Hunt. She was appointed Deputy Mayor of the Olympics Village,[47] being responsible for making the Olympics take place. She resigned her role as Shadow Minister for the Olympics in September 2012, and returned to the House of Commonsbackbenches.[48]

In May 2015, she launched her campaign to be selected as the Labour Party's official candidate in the 2016 election for Mayor of London.[50] Six candidates stood for selection and in September the process concluded with her coming second to Sadiq Khan.[51]

In January 2018, Jowell got a standing ovation in the House of Lords for a speech. She began by speaking of how she came to be diagnosed with an extremely lethal form of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme. She went on to advocate making more cancer treatments available in the NHS. She said, "In the end, what gives a life meaning is not only how it is lived, but how it draws to a close. I hope that this debate will give hope to other cancer patients, like me, so that we can live well together with cancer, not just dying of it. All of us, for longer."[54]

Jowell was investigated by the Cabinet SecretaryGus O'Donnell over the allegations surrounding her husband, because of a possible conflict of interest between her personal life and ministerial duties. O'Donnell stated that, "it is the Prime Minister, not me, who, constitutionally, is the right and proper person to take a view on matters arising based on the Ministerial Code" in his letter,[57] and Tony Blair decided that she was "not in breach" of the ministers' code of conduct.[58] On 4 March 2006, it was announced that Jowell and Mills had separated, after the allegations had begun to damage her political standing. Jowell said "although we are separated I have never doubted his innocence".[59] Skepticism that Jowell was unaware of the details of her husband's dealings with Berlusconi led to a Private Eye front cover of her with a speech bubble saying: "I have never met my husband".[60] Mills allegedly admitted to being "an idiot", and has expressed his remorse about the impact of his dealings upon his wife. The separation had effectively ended by September 2012.[61]

On 17 February 2009, an Italian court sentenced Mills to four years and six months in jail after finding him guilty of accepting a bribe from Berlusconi to give false evidence on his behalf during corruption trials which had taken place in 1997 and 1998. His defence counsel said that the sentence went "against the logic and dynamic of the evidence presented". The judgment was appealed by Mills. On 27 October 2009, the Italian Appeal Court upheld his conviction and prison sentence. Mills confirmed that he would initiate a second and final appeal to the Cassation Court.[62] On 25 February 2010, the Italian Cassation Court (the second and last court of appeal under Italian law) dissolved the case because of the statute of limitations.[63][64] For this type of crime, in Italian law, a case expires after 10 years. Mills argued that he received the money in 1999, and not 2000 as Prosecutors had previously argued, thus taking advantage of the statute of limitations.[65]

In 2001, Jowell was widely criticised for 'interfering' in Independent Television Commission (ITC) rulings on complaints regarding Brass Eye. The Guardian newspaper suggested that "for the Culture Secretary to speak directly to the head of a TV network about a specific programme smacks of the Soviet commissar and the state broadcaster".[66][67][68] The ITC reminded Jowell that she should not be interfering in their processes, resulting in a Channel Four interviewer suggesting Jowell and her colleagues "must feel like idiots".[69]

In 2006, Jowell was criticised[70] for projected cost over-runs on the London 2012 Summer Olympics project, which came under the supervision of her former department.[71]

She was among a number of ministers accused of hypocrisy[72] for opposing Post Office closures in their own constituencies while supporting the government's closure strategy at the national level.[73]

In May 2014 a temporary personal assistant to Richard Scudamore, chief executive of England's Premier League, read private emails between Scudamore and colleagues and friends. These included comments about women's football, which the assistant felt to be inappropriate. She passed them on to a national newspaper, the Daily Mirror. Jowell defended the reading and passing-on of the emails, declaring that, "in the world of social media and email, there is no public and private".[76]

Jowell served as a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2016. In this role, she taught a course in the Department of Health Policy and Management called, "Health Policy and Leadership: Why do we know so much and do so little?"[77] Jowell also actively served on the Advisory Board of the Ministerial Leadership in Health Program, a joint initiative of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.[78]

Jowell's first marriage was to fellow Camden CouncillorRoger Jowell in 1970; this was dissolved in 1976, but she continued to use his surname.[79] Roger Jowell co-founded and directed Social & Community Planning Research (SCPR), now the National Centre for Social Research,[80] known for its British Social Attitudes Surveys.

She married David Mills on 17 March 1979. They separated in March 2006, following the controversy over Mills's links to Berlusconi. Their professed hopes to "restore their relationship over time", rather than seek divorce, caused some to regard this as a politically expedient gesture to save her political career.[81] Jowell said on Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme in September 2012 that she was seeing Mills regularly, saying that they had "reached a state of stability which I never thought possible".[61] She had a son and daughter, as well as three stepchildren (including journalist Eleanor Mills) from her husband's first marriage.[citation needed] In April 2016, her son Matthew Mills married food writer Ella Woodward, who is also his business partner.[82][83] Her daughter Jess Mills is a singer.[84]

In January 2011, during the News of the World phone hacking affair, it was revealed that Jowell had contacted lawyers as she attempted to find out who hacked into her voicemails on 28 separate occasions during 2006. Jowell contacted police in late January 2011 to inform them that there had recently been an unsuccessful attempt to listen to voicemail messages on her phone.[85]

On her 70th birthday on 17 September 2017, her family made public the news that she had been suffering from brain cancer since May of that year. On her Twitter account, she stated "Thank you for so much love and support on my birthday. More people living longer better lives with cancer is my birthday pledge".[86] Jowell wanted more treatment for cancer patients, knowledge about cancer treatment shared more effectively, speedier diagnosis, greater access to experimental treatments, and improved survival rates.[87] After Jowell's death, Downing Street announced that in tribute to her, brain cancer government funding would be doubled and the so-called "gold standard dye" tumour diagnosis tests would be extended to all NHS hospitals.[88]

Jowell suffered a brain haemorrhage on 11 May 2018 and was in a coma until her death the following day at the age of 70.[1]

She was appointed to the Order of the British Empire as a Dame Commander in the Civil Division in the 2012 Birthday Honours,[3] giving her the right to the prenomial title "Dame" and post-nominal letters "DBE". However, the former, although hers was a substantive and not honorary damehood, was no longer practically applicable following her peerage, with its superseding titles.

^According to the prosecutor the crime occurred on 11 November 1999, when "Mills, on his own, and not as manager of the interests of others, provided instructions for the transfer of about $ 600,000 from the Janus Capital Fund and the Torrey Fund" and February 29, 2000 when the money was actually made available, as is determined by the Court of appeal, and the different date means that the offence expired [after the 10-year rule]. The prosecutor in the indictment also pointed out that "the delay of the final step in the ownership of the shares does not affect the time of when the expiry of the offence takes effect but stems from the desire of Mills to complicate the reconstruction of this illegal transfer of money and its origins" and that "when there is uncertainty about the date of committing an offence, the rule of favor rei applies: and the effect of the 10-year expiry must be fixed at the most favourable date for the accused